“Marc Ewing, one of the founders of Red Hat Linux, and now that
company’s chief technical officer, claims he was broke six years
ago. Whether or not that is an exaggeration, and regardless of his
official position at the time, he was the fellow I would call first
to get technical support for Red Hat Linux. And he always had the
answers…”
“Regardless, I’d wager Marc is one of the only billionaires
— on paper or otherwise — who could still deliver a useful answer
if you called him for technical support. And I wouldn’t be
afraid to place that call, because it is obvious his ego hasn’t
inflated to match his net worth.”
“Despite the natural fascination we as a people have with
wealth, Marc and I got past the obligatory money and stock issues
fairly quickly. What interested both of us most were the marketing,
technical, and product issues. He didn’t reveal anything that would
shock Linux fans, but Marc offered some reassuring confirmations
that Red Hat is working on the issues that can make Linux
successful in the server market.”